La Souris (The mouse)
by Onlyndreams145
Summary: Same story only from the points of view of the hidden wives and love-interests of the brave men on The Mile; Janice Edgecomb, Bonnie Stanton (nurse on The Mile) and June Terwilliger each must face their husbands demons from afar as well as their own; as miracles, horrors, and failures befall them on the long mile we call life
1. Serenity

1932

She didn't know what it was that got in her craw that Tuesday morning November 22, 1932 but it had happened nearly as soon as the sun cast its first rays scattered across her bedroom floor from under the curtains. She sat up, straight up in bed, looked over at the red and white party dress mama had picked out for her (as she had picked out everything else in her life for the girl up to that point) she looked at that dress, or maybe it was the ridiculous matching hat that went with it and said to herself. "Alright…I don't want to do this anymore." Kicked off the covers and had made up her mind not to.

In so many ways that was the best and worst decision of her life. She went to the window and opened the curtains and nearly shuttered at the expanse of vibrant green bending grass that she had never dared to cross in her entire life. there was miles of it…miles of green. Miles of a life she hadn't live. a breeze swept through that grass, tall as wheat, combed through it and she felt that breeze as if the window had no panes in it, cool…and electrifying. She could smell the air of freedom on that breeze. She held fast to the curtains on both sides, bosom sticking out and heaving.

"Serenity! Serenity!" She didn't hear the shrill voice calling her from just downstairs, too lost in the whispered voices of freedom that seemed to be calling her by the same name from the miles of green outside. A new beginning

"Serenity Stagebright you come downstairs right this instant when your mama is callin you!" even that didn't rouse her away. It was only at the soft wrap at her door frame and the baritone voice of the former governor, Clim Stagebright… her father jokingly saying "Warden's callin" about her mother Delilah Stagebright that she resumed back to the world she was forced to live in.

Warden's calling… could he have picked any more apt or telling words?

The maids came in then to fill the basin with warmish water and to get out the girls filigree over robe for her nightgown, she was allowed to have breakfast in her nightdress that morning but it was a rarity; a treat, her mother called it often with a scowl on the occasions that this luxury was allowed. But her long dark hair still had to be brushed out and re-braided and not a speck of dirt under her nails if she wanted to sit at the same table as her mother for breakfast.

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness." Her mother would often insist looking her over. And Godliness under her mother's definition was something cruel if standards were not met.

Serenity fidgeted, twisting her hands over and over as the old Cajun maid with ebony-hands lined with veins twined the silken hair into a braid almost seamlessly. Serenity recited the bible verses in her head she would have to recite. Three before every meal. She was shaky today, the verses were getting crossed and confused in her head, she couldn't make them clear. She even tried a few out loud.

"For God so loved the world that he gave us…no… his one and only…..no… eternal…Is this under John 16, or is it the book of Ruth?" she was tempted by the warn but beautiful bible on the edge of her vanity to look, but she knew that would be cheating…she needed to remember.

Only one verse came to mind, clearly and coherently, along with the person it reminded her so undoubtedly of.

"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Percy Wetmore…

The maid's voice intervened on Serenity's thoughts, and her ever twisting, bitten and scared ivory hands. "Yous gon look so pretty in dat dress your mama laid out for you Miss Serenity, Mister Wetmore ain't goin to know what to do with himself. Oui, Tellement beau!"

If only that were true; Percy Wetmore always had not a doubt what he was doing with himself, better his position by any and all means necessary; she had hoped that when his Uncle had been elected as the new governor after her father that would be enough for him, but now her father was running for Senator and the fact that he was now in the position of governor's nephew it was the perfect incentive for both parties.

"That's just aces!" he had said when he had approached her parents…her mother mostly with the proposition and she had agreed to it.

Aces… that was the winning hand. Serenity half wondered if there was a hand in poker she could have to beat Percy's "aces" and get herself out of this match but the chips were already down.

"I'm going to die today." Serenity exhaled, not knowing she was vocalizing her thoughts.

The maid clasped her white shoulders affectionately. "Every girl is nervous when a fella gets on one knee 'fore her honey."

At the touch on her cold skin Serenity, clasped the black viney hand that had changed, and coddled, and cared for her all throughout her life and kissed it, then turning away from the mirror looked into the familiar brown eyes. "I want you to have my button collection when I'm gone Mama Helene, they're worth something I think and I want you to have them, and make sure Pa takes his medicine, please." There was no hesitation, no trimmer, she was absolutely certain…it had to be today, and there was something poetic about it.

"Shush child."

She would shush, by this afternoon she would shush forever in that beautiful mile of green.

"Well." Was the first thing her mother said when she reached the dinning room, expecting the bible verses right then and there. The shadows from the window panes looked very much like prison bars stretching across the floor. Serenity could hardly meet her mother's lifting gaze. She swallowed the dry lump in her throat as best she could.

"In the morning, LORD, thou wilt hear my voice; in the morning I lay thy requests before thee and wait expectantly. Psalms 5:3

But he said onto me, my grace is sufficient for you, for thy power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all to rejoice about thy weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on thee. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when thou art weak, then I am strong."

It is in thy weakness that God makes us strong. So we shalt always have challenges Corinthians 12:9-11"

"And?" her mother said impatiently, setting down the elegant tea cup she held with a clink. That one sound was nearly enough to make the girl loose her nerves and commit her ultimate sin right then and there, the sin she would surely burn for.

"For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 " that one was an utter lie; there were no plans, no hope…not for Serenity.

Delilah Stagebright considered for a moment if the verses her trembling daughter had lied at her feet like a sacrifice were to her satisfactory. She was a woman of God of that, no one doubted. She was a woman of the highest regard in church, had been a woman of the highest regard as the governor's wife, and now to be a wife of a senator and a mother-in-law to a clearly rising young man. She was a desirable plump size, with clothes to match and a cold look in her eye.

And Delilah Stagebright always smelt of Honeysuckle perfume.

She waved her hand reluctantly as a sign that the girl could sit and dine, like an expectant dog. The girl in question was looking half faint and that she might have collapsed had she been withheld a moment longer. She looked less like a young heiress in the prime of her youth and more like a homeless vagabond dressed up in a fine nightdress on the verge of being a corpse; all be it a tremendously beautiful one. Her hand shook as she raised it to take some food, she had to clasp it with the other to hide it.

Her mother rolled her eyes and waved her hand toward the maid. "Serve her."

Mama Helene went to it, taking great care to fill the girl's plate, she half feared that if Delilah Stagebright ordered another week of fasting for her daughter to teach "the meaning of gratefulness" the girl would not survive it. This had been the first meal she had been granted to have in a week.

Moreover, the "temporary" renunciation of food in the church was ordered to intensify the expression of need for something greater — namely, God and his work in our lives. However, in the case of the daughter of Delilah Stagebright the "temporary" depravity of food came at more frequent and lengthy interludes as the girl had blossomed into a sin that her mother had yet to purge her of.

She was scares allowed to see the light of day beyond the panes of her window. Delilah saw that her daughter's gifr was the work of demons not angels. A demonic power over men. That little smile she gave was proof. And thus, the purge began.

Fasting for long intervals, no longer allowing the girl to attend church but study the scriptures from her room and teachings from her mother's own lips. Praying, recanting, scolding, repenting, beatings… savage beatings… all in the name of The Lord.

Serenity had taken this at face value; as she got gaunter and paler, as scars and welts began to surface over the years, her mother had said it was for the love of the lord, and for love of her mother she believed her. But it wasn't until her mama engaged her to Percy Wetmore did she realize her mother only did it out of blind hatred. Her mother hated her.

Her child was just another showcase of her esteem. Serenity's godliness, Serenity's mildness, her obedience, her silence, her aristocratically white skin, all of it a showcase. And Percy Wetmore was just the icing on the cake. He would keep up with her mother's…disciplinary tactics after they were married, happily.

He was going to propose to her on this day, at The Niagara Club, as a birthday present.

This was why Serenity J. Stagebright had decided on this day to take her own life, with her daddy's gun, out in the field.

But fate had something else in mind…

Fate had John Coffey, in mind.

**The pairings will be: Paul/Janice Harry/OC Dean/OC Brutus/Narrator (duh) and proud to be the first ever Del/OC (one-sided) oh come on the guy deserves it!-slight Percy/Del (one -sided) but mostly Percy bashing**

**Please leave a comment if you enjoyed this**


	2. Chapter 1

1935 –two years later—Cold Mountain Penitentiary

Bonnie Stanton was not a woman to be trifled with. She was a woman that made the saying about redheads true. She had the looks and a mouth that would have given Mae West a run for her money, had she been in the industry of film, but she wasn't. She was the head nurse at The Cold Mountain Penitentiary, and she belonged there.

She had a gentle touch; after all she was a mother of two, but you only got that gentle touch if you deserved it. Prisoners who came in with lewd comments about her or any of her staff, or seemed to give the guards trouble got the most base care she was required to give…we've all gotten shots in our lives that we've either haven't felt at all or have hurt a little more than it should… Bonnie Stanton was capable of both, and no one forgot that soon.

The Warden's office was linked to the infirmary by a small stretch of hall. The infirmary itself seemed more like a nurse's office in a school except for the six beds in total, not allotting for many seriously injured or sick inmates to have the privilege to recuperate there unless they were really special cases. They had a small triage section which consisted of an examining table and a screen to provide some (the bare minimal) amount of privacy. It was a staff of four minus the nurse on maternity leave, and Bonnie made sure it ran like clockwork, much like she did at her home with her husband Dean and her two kids; Sarah and Michael Stanton.

Warden Moores stepped into the infirmary and Bonnie took his presents very seriously despite her casual air. "Warden." She greeted looking up.

The warden removed his glasses. He had been coming to her a lot lately on more personal matters since his wife Melinda had become so ill. She almost seemed to be a second opinion to him, as if he hoped she would tell him something different then what the city doctors were saying, or that was what June Trewilliger the woman who watched her children while her and Dean were at work during the day and a wife of a fellow guard had said.

Bonnie would know by what he called her what manor of business this was. "Mrs. Stanton" meant business, "Bonnie" meant personal.

"Bonnie." Personal. She relaxed her stance a little.

He was looking at a file intently. "I need you to give a secretarial candidate a physical." He said as if it were the most routine thing in the world. Bonnie blinked.

"I knew they were cracking down on requirements for guards but I didn't think it would stretch all the way to a desk job." She said after a long moment.

The warden looked at her in such a way to let her know he didn't appreciate the joke. "Senator's daughter. I need a plausible reason not to hire her." he stated simply. Bonnie pushed herself up on the examining table, obviously there was no medical reason other than drug use not to hire a girl as a typist and to deliver memos and D. from block to block but she could see the warden's anterior motives. Bonnie had been known for her scare tactics, she had scared many a dewy-eyed nursing candidates away that she felt couldn't handle the job, the warden was now expecting her to do the same with a secretary. And she knew exactly why.

"I don't want to hire another relation to a public figure. Wetmore is giving E block enough trouble as it is."

Bonnie smirked a little. "So Dean tells me."

Warden Moores resumed. "I don't want that sort of thing in my office." His eyebrows raised as if to question if she got his meaning. She did.

She followed the warden down the small hall and down into his office. On ceremony the girl stood at an uneasy attention as soon as she heard the latch, Bonnie stepped in behind the warden. The girl's head was up but she wouldn't meet anyone's gaze, hands clasped behind her back; Bonnie took her in, she was young, pretty, thin, quiet. Most new comers even nursing candidates would throw out their hands and try and make a show of themselves in one way or another, but this girl looked like a perpetually guilty child. She did not unclasp her hands or make a move to introduce herself.

"Ms. Stagebright, this is Mrs. Stanton our head nurse, she'll be giving you your physical."

"Howdy do Ms. Stagebright." Bonnie held out her hand. The girl finally budged with slow calculating movements as if released from a magic spell, meeting Bonnie's eyes.

"How do you do Misses Stanton." The words too were slow and calculated, it was English, but a form of English that was foreign in Louisiana; there was no trace of a southern draw Bonnie could find anywhere. Each syllable, each sound was smooth and clear and pronounced and yet it was effortless. Every word, round, sensual and low and yet innocent like a whisper. It might have been mistaken for British English, but no it wasn't that; nevertheless, there was something haunting there, something exotic…but not to any place Bonnie knew of.

"I'll leave you to it." The warden made his exit.

The girl lowered her gaze again. She didn't budge again until Bonnie told her to follow, and then stood still once more with her hands clasped outside the infirmary door until she was invited in. this all together struck Bonnie as duddish, the girl seemed to have no incisive to move or speak unless she was told to in one way or another. Not in the way that Wetmore seemed to demonstrate out of arrogance, but it was rather like a human doll, patient and waiting. Something so simplistic. Easy to scare, Bonnie thought.

"Would you like to have a seat?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Do you have any past medical history?"

"No, I do not."

"Do you mind if I listen to your heart and lungs?"

"You may do whatever you wish."

Bonnie did and then moved on to blood pressure. "My, your blood pressure is low."

This coax the girl into a small smile. "The doctors say it is because I am an exceedingly calm person."

That was evident, she displayed no emotion but an unsettling calmness. The girl then took it upon herself with a lowering of the eyes from guilt perhaps to speak without prompt. "Perhaps that will work to my benefit?" her eyes raised slightly in question.

"Perhaps." Bonnie granted, when she gestured for the girl to open her mouth she dropped her chin, gently, obeisantly into Bonnie's hand. Bonnie pulled away and the mouth closed again. Ms. Stagebright was silent again, not at all a good quality for a secretary who needs to answer a phone.

"So." Bonnie started. "Must be nice, bein the senator's daughter. Goin to The Niagara Club, rubbin elbows with all the right people." there was a slight pang of jealousy, Bonnie had always wondered what that club was like, what rich people did, her father used to work there as a stable hand before the invention of motorcars.

"I wouldn't know." Was the quiet but shocking answer. "My mother and father disowned me a very long time ago. They said I was not their daughter anymore; therefore I'm not." She lowered her eyes again, so simple, so factual…like a child, like a well behaved little girl.

This was the kind of thing Bonnie expected to read in the paper or in a circle of gossip; if this was true it had certainly been kept hush-hush, certainly the warden didn't know about it otherwise he wouldn't have been so careful on just telling the girl no outright.

Bonnie now found herself wanting to pull out every single bit of information she could; turning from physical to investigation, the kind you give a lost child. "Where do you live then ?' Bonnie still went back and forth to get tools she needed to complete the exam.

"On the Bayou with Mama Helene. The people look at me funny when we go out for outings there sometimes, but I don't mind. I feel safe there, happy." Another light smile passed the girl's lips. "Do you think we can have lunch together when I start working here? You seem very nice…and I would like to have a friend."

Bonnie gapped a little unsure of what to answer, the girl didn't exactly sound confident, but it was out of a blind child-like certainty, like when her daughter would ask her to set out cookies for Santa Claus, or her son would ask Dean to scare away the monsters from under his bed every night; not real, but innocently real enough to them. "Sure, we can."

"I've never had a friend before." Another light, sweet smile.

Bonnie gave a brief nod. She then picked up the girl's hand and nearly dropped them again; if there was any unpleasantness to this girl…it was all in her hands, marred with scar-tissue and ugly marks that must have been caused by something painful. At Bonnie's expression, the girl blushed and pulled her hands away to hide them. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

"How did you get those?"

"Mice… when I was bad my mother would lock me in the closet overnight so I could learn my lesson and the mice and rats would bite me sometimes…I'm really afraid of mice now."

Bonnie nodded as something begun to pang inside of her the more this girl talked, and moved, and spoke. "I can see that." She wasn't a fan of rodents either, but not for that reason.

The nurse cocked her head, it was less of an opening to a scare tactic and more of a serious question now. "Why here? A pretty thang like you could get a secretary job anywhere with a crock of a finger. Why do you want to be a secretary where the scum of the earth or at least the scum of Louisiana go?"

The girl looked up for the first time and there was something unnerving about it, something Bonnie couldn't place. "I want to be here." Then her face turned slowly towards the phone. "its going to ring Nurse Stanton." The girl said resolutely.

The phone rang just then and both women jumped, Bonnie paused, gaped for a moment, shook herself out of it and picked up the phone. "Yeah?" it was June Terwillager at the front office with Michael. Christ, her son's fever must have spiked. She just hoped there was enough staff to hold down the fort if she had to take him to the doctor

June came in as a master of her craft as a sitter; having had five grown children of her own she knew all the ins and outs of childcare, cooking, knitting (which she did every Tuesday night with their other friend Janice Edgecomb, they all had their little book club meetings discussing Jane Austin and such on Fridays, and switched off on who made Sunday lunch after church which sometimes included Melinda Moores, but not lately). June balanced Michael on her hip and had Sarah reluctantly by the other hand trailing behind. "Sarah has a start of the fever too, I called the doctor, he said he could get them in but I wanted to see you first. I brought Harry's car, so you can take Dean's and we'll drive him home."

June set Michael down and moved with Bonnie to the phone to update and make all the arrangements with their husbands on E block when the most amazing thing happened.

While taking turns in rambles on the phone about what was what, after all Michael Stanton's fever had been going on for a bit too long and even Bonnie hadn't been able to sooth it for more than a few hours at a time. Pale, vomity and cold sweats conbined for almost three weeks now. It was now time to worry, as Bonnie was now informing Dean, there was a blinding, pulsating light behind them, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud, same warmth too, which would have been fine except…. The infirmary had no windows.

June and Bonnie turned at the same time, June nearly dropping the phone despite Harry continuing to talk. "Oh my stars." Bonnie gawked.

The warden's secretarial candidate who had gone ignored since June Terwillager entered the scene was now sitting with Bonnie's son perched on her lap, arms affectionately around her neck as if he had known her all his life, his sister Sarah with her arms around the two…and the girl, Stagebright…was glowing, projecting a light from her very bosom and straight into the children. Devine and yellow. Her head rested against Michael's, eyes shut and arms reaching to include Sarah as if they were all simply cat napping in the sun together.

When it was done, the light faded and the girl half fell back when she released the two children who were as good as new and went sprinting back to their mother, begging to talk to their father on the phone. Bonnie checked both their heads…cool as cucumbers. June picked up the phone again gawking and told Harry she would have to call him back and hung up before he could ask what the hell happened.

The two old friends looked at each other, then at the girl whose only explanation was.

"You have to forgive me…I love children. have…I passed my physical Nurse Stanton?"

A few hours and about a hundred double-takes later, Bonnie was faced with contemplations. After she sent June and her two healthy children home she concluded her interview with Ms. Stagebright; she asked the girl what had happened and she responded as such with eyes lowered. "The man who helped me gave me a gift so that I can help others."

When Bonnie had asked her who the man was and what exactly he had helped her with to give her such a gift, the girl showed reluctance for the first time she shook her head. "I promised him it was a secret…just between us. If its all the same to you I'd like to keep my word. I hope we can still be friends."

Bonnie had nodded, if this was what she believed it was; she had no right to question it. If angels (which she was pretty sure that was what she was dealing with) had communion on earth then that was between them and God, all she could do was marvel at it.

She asked if the girl's services (whatever they were) wouldn't be better served on her staff as a nurse but the girl shook her head, meeting Bonnie's gaze for a second time, with the same uneasy effect. "I want to be a secretary…and I want to be here."

Bonnie couldn't argue, couldn't question, she felt she only had the right to issue a warning to this creature. Not a scare tactic as she first intended but a warning.

"If I convince Hal to hire you, and you deliver these memos and D. to the blocks I can't promise your safety, I can't promise that these men will always be behind the bars…some of these men, especially on E block…The Mile, if they get out, they'll eat a girl like you alive and not think twice about it."

Serenity Stagebright only continued that gaze; now unwavering, parted her lips and uttered an old verse softly.

"I fear not those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body."

**Slowly introducing the other wives. Please drop me a comment if you like this**  
**I'm trying to write in the style of King, Jane Austin is an Easter Egg I carried over from the book as that was what Janice was reading when the guys hatched the plan to take Coffey to Melinda Moores**


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